Caliphate Manifesto: SOCIAL HARMONY

PART IV: SOCIAL HARMONY: STRONG – Strong Families and a Strong Society

1. BUILDING A HEALTHY CO-OPERATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

a. HEALTHY INTERACTION IN THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

The Shari’ah encourages co‐operation between men and women and places intimate interaction securely within the confines of marriage. This allows the sexual relationship to play a positive part in binding together husband and wife as a team in raising a family. It also prevents the detrimental effect of extra‐marital affairs and their destructive impact on family stability.

b. PROMOTING A TRANQUIL SOCIETY – DRESS CODE

The Shari’ah specifies a dress code for both men and women that must be adhered to in public. This code ensures that the public space is peaceful and suitable for families. The Shari’ah prohibits the sort of dress and clothes that lead to frustration and create temptations towards zina and extra‐marital affairs.

c. PREVENTING THE OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN

The only place for sexual behaviour of either the man or the woman is in the confines of marriage. The Shari’ah prohibits the objectification and exploitation of the female form in all areas such as advertising, media, public dress codes and art forms such as film and TV. The Shari’ah provides regulations that eliminate the opportunities and atmosphere for women to be sexually exploited as they are in the West.

d. SHARI’AH PROTECTS THE MARRIED AND UNMARRIED WOMAN

The Shari’ah makes it illegal to force woman into marriage and indeed makes it illegal for the guardian of a woman to block a marriage proposal from an eligible partner, without good reason.

The Shari’ah stipulates a court process guaranteeing the woman’s right to divorce if she is unhappy in the marriage. No stigma is to attached to the divorcee.

The Shari’ah makes it illegal for physical assault to occur, this includes physical assault of the husband on his wife. The husband has no right to inflict physical injury on his wife.

The woman has the right to maintain her own wealth independent of her husband. The husband has no right to her wealth, whilst he is responsible for the maintenance of his wife regardless of her level of personal wealth.

e. RIGHT TO WORK & THE RIGHT TO BE A HOUSEWIFE

The Shari’ah places critical importance on the role of a woman as a mother and a wife, due to its importance for family and societal stability. It demands that this role is respected and honoured. It also requires that the wife is assisted financially to ensure she can adequately carry out her responsibilities.

The Shari’ah also protects the right of the woman to work and earn a salary.

f. REQUIREMENT FOR CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN TO PUBLIC LIFE

The Shari’ah views women as playing a crucial and indispensable part in public life, whether that be politics, business or trading etc. Women are to be given every educational opportunity for self-development.

2. FAMILY AND THE STRONG FUTURE OF THE STATE

The family is the basic building block of society. If it fails, society disintegrates. The Shari’ah recognises this in its solutions to promote family life, as well as its methods to ensure it is protected.

a. MARRIAGE & CHILDREN

The Shari’ah recognises that children are the future of the State and that children can best reach the potential that Allah(swt) has given them when they grow up in a stable loving family environment. It is for this reason that marriage is sacrosanct, that intimate relations function as one of the binders in marriage and that anything that threatens to destroy or impair marital fidelity is blocked.

Extra marital affairs and zina, destroy marriages which in turn destroys the stability for children and ultimately destroys the future of the State.

b. KITH AND KIN

The Shari’ah provides a strong endorsement to look after the wider family, going as far as to encourage that wider family be the first recipients of charity. Also supporting of needy relatives is a legal obligation.

c. TRANSPARENT INHERITANCE LAWS

The Shari’ah reduces family and community destroying inheritance disputes by clearly mandating who is entitled to what.

3. PROGRESS THROUGH EDUCATION

The Shari’ah requires that the State develops Islamic personalities and that the State creates skills and abilities in its citizens appropriate to becoming the leading and most technically advanced nation in the world.

To this end the government will adopt a curriculum that will be taught by the public and private sector.

The government will endeavour to make primary and secondary school education free of charge for all girls and boys and ensure that the quality of teaching produces independent, lateral thinkers that are able to produce the leadership and confident atmosphere the State needs in order to compete globally.

Tertiary education will be modelled to make it accessible to students and to produce genuine centres of research excellence that attract the best minds globally.

4. EFFECTIVE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE

The state is obliged to provide free basic and emergency healthcare for all.

The creation of a modern preventive healthcare model based on a high number of local family physicians and practitioners is envisaged. Other models that have been effectively applied in countries facing resource challenges have set a ratio of 1 doctor to approximately 1000 patients. This coupled with a set of polyclinics for more complex problems e.g. 1 polyclinic to 30,000 people can reduce the overall burden on hospitals.